User virtualisation

Often overlooked, User Virtualisation is an important part of any desktop project. Virtualising the users’ working environment means an organisation can truly treat the operating system, applications and user settings/data as distinct parts of an overall solution.

User Virtualisation looks to 'complete the story' by managing the users’ settings or personalisation.  This includes all the information and configuration which makes the working environment unique to an individual. This may include obvious elements such as desktop wallpaper or colour settings, but can also include drive and printer mappings, application configuration settings and security policies.

User Virtualisation can be split into two areas – User Personalisation and User Policy.

User Personalisation

User Personalisation is concerned with making sure that users are able to keep the preferences that they have set up within their operating environment, that personalises it. Preserving these settings is important because it maintains familiarity and will minimise disruption as systems change.

User Policy

User Policy is implementing the rules defined for that particular user. These are centrally managed and can be used to both enable and disable functionality as required, giving a working environment that is optimised for the particular user.

A complete solution

User Personalisation is traditionally done by maintaining user profiles. These have historically been found to become unwieldy and not suitable for migrating to/between new environments. So to successfully migrate a user’s desktop to a new environment, an alternative strategy must be used which generally results in the need to manage user profiles - a “profile management solution”. This is where User Virtualisation comes into play.

User Policy can be implemented in many ways in an organisation, including Group Policy and login scripts. An important part of User Virtualisation is to streamline these processes so as to reduce the management overhead, and to improve functionality by providing a more granular way of implementing policy.

We're experts in User Virtualisation - talk to us about implementing User Policy and User Personalisation in your organisation.